Rigging a cruising chute

[paulskent]

I think I am about to acquire a crusing chute in a snuffer for my benny 331. Now I have read a bit on the rigging of one of these devices and what I think I need is a halyard to raise it. A method of connecting the tack to the stem and two sheets which are passed outside of all the rigging to two blocks towards the stern which will then allow me to lead the sheets forwards to the appropriate genoa winch.

I have a coupe of questions.

1 My spare (sppinnaker ?) halyard comes out of the mast just below the forestay and all the articles I have read suggest that it needs to be above and thus infront of the forestay. Is this going to be a problem ??

2 How is it best to ensure that the lazy sheet does not fall into the water during a gybe. Given the ease of using a snuffer I am tempted to snuff the thing as we gybe and maybe rely on just one sheet which I can walk round the boat..

what do you think ???

 

[aluijten]

As I'm pretty new to this area as well, I can't comment on 'good gybing techniques'. But your first question is correct. The halyard should be abobe the forestay, as you carry the cruising chute in front of your forestay.

My guess is you have a Seldén mast. Look at their website (http://www.seldenmast.com), you can find documentation (under 'manuals') on the mast rigging variants. There is also a section describing the specific blocks meant for spinnaker and cruising chutes. These can be retrofitted to your mastheast (relatively) easy.

Arno

 

[bobgosling]

Ours is rigged with the tack rope going through a block attached to the bow roller and uses the spinaker halyard. We use just one sheet and snuff the chute before gybing. The sheet runs through a block attached to each stern cleat, which makes cleating the mooring rope difficult but I'm not sure the toerail is up to the job. I may get round to fitting a ringbolt with siutable backing one day.

PBO ( I think ) had a Tom Cunliffe article recently which explained how to do it all. It was after reading it that we finally took the plunge and tried out the chute for the first time.

 

[Cobra25]

http://www.uksailmakers.com/encyclopedia/encyclopedia.html#1

Of some help I hope

This may be better : http://www.kempsails.com/da/12071

 

[Peppermint]

Re: One sheet will do

and snuff it instead of gybing then set up on the other tack. Much easier. No lazy sheet to bother about. It's handy if you can adjust the tack line easily.

 

[DJE]

It sounds like you have a spare genoa halyard there. The spinkaker halyard should be lead to a swivelling block above the forestay.

Snuffers very in quality. The one that came with our chute was rubbish and we stopped using it years ago. I found it needed someone on the foredeck operating the snuffer lines, then he had to tie them off to the pulpit or something before returning to the cockpit. Between hoisting and raising the snuffer the whole sausage was prone to wrapping itself round the forestay. We now launch the chute straight out of a bag which is fixed to the gaurdrails and recover it behind the mainsail and in to the main hatch.

We use two sheets and don't have any problems with the lazy sheet dropping in to the sea. The chute has a fairly high clew so this doesn't seem to be a problem. We lead the lazy sheet in front of the chute and gybe by letting the sail fly right out in front of the boat then pulling in on the new sheet. This seems easier than pulling the whole thing through the gap between its own luff and the forestay. If you use two sheets they have to be very long (about twice the length of the boat) to allow the sail to be dropped in to the hatch with both sheets attached.

Sometimes the lazy sheet drops down the forestay inside the pulpit and gets caught round the genoa furling gear drum. We rig a sail tie between the furled genoa and the pulpit to prevent this; but you have to remember to remove it before you try to unfurl the genoa.

The trick to gybing the chute is to pull the main in tight so that the chute is getting wind down both sides of the main to keep it full as you bear away. It is actually more difficult to gybe in very light wind as the chute tends to collapse on to the forestay. You have to learn to gybe the chute and to tack downwind as it won't set on a dead run.

All these comments relate to a masthead rig. I Hope some of them help.

 

[tross]

The only thing I can add to the last excelent reply is to have two sets of sheets - A light pair with a plastic snap shackle and a heavy weather set with a metel snap shackle.
The nice thing about having a lazy sheet is that you can use to have someone in the hatch way ready to pull it in once you trip the clew.

 

[Abigail]

Further comment - we run the sheets (using two) through snapshackles attached to toe rail alongside our centre cockpit and then through blocks attached to the mizzen shroud chanplates and then forward again to cockpit winches.

We have only used it four times so far, and added the additional toe rail snapshackles this last time. Worked a treat, making the sheets much easier to handle and the whole arrangement ran much better.

We also tried gybing it for first time, and found DJE's suggestion much the best way to go - ie let it fly round the front. Thanks for the tip about centring the mainsail!

 

[TheBoatman]

Further comments

On our boat I use a line for the tack that is fitted with a snap shackle c/w with firing line and then lead it all the way back to the main sheet winch through a spare cam lock. This allows me to adjust the tack as sometimes I find that the sail will carry better close into the stemhead or other times further out in fact I tend to cary it further out to aviod the tack line getting wrapped around the stemhead nav light. It also means that I can dump it quickly by pulling the firing line and then snuff it.

Peter.

 

[paulskent]

Not sure I know what a firing line is ??? Can anyone explain ??

 

[DJE]

I'm sure TheBoatman will correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds to me like a bit of light line tied to the ring on the release pin of the snap shackle. So you can pull the release without leaving the cockpit when you want to get the chute down.

Just be careful that nobody pulls it by accident before you are ready. If I had anything like that I would be sure to catch my foot in it when moving around the deck.

 

[TheBoatman]

Well you're almost right, it is a small dia line attached to the shackle pin but the line is only about a foot long with a bowline loop so I can either fire it with my hand or a boathook. I used the same method when we had a spinnaker I just carried on the same practice with the cruising chute.

Peter /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Cutter]

but when you get it wrong it can look spectacular!
Our efforts last weekend are here

What a mess!

Generally tho we manage ok!

 

[ashanta]

If your halyard is behinf the forestay then Gybing your chute by allowing the sheets to bring the clew across the bow/deck is feasable and could be a benefit. I have a chute and I use my spinaker halyard which is above my forestay and therefore i cannot gybe easily. i have to snuff my sail and bring my sock around the forestay, attach the new sheets and raise the snuffer.

Regards.

peter.